The Warm Moodiness of a New York City Loft and Concept Store

In an 8,000-square-foot 19th-century Tribeca loft, Quarters, In Common With’s new concept store and community gathering space, serves as showroom, shop, and gallery for the stylish lighting and design studio. Washed in warm colours and balancing contemporary with vintage, the space reflects the essence of Felicia Hung and Nick Ozemba’s design ethos.

Hung and Ozemba met on the first day of freshman year at Rhode Island School of Design and founded In Common With in 2018 after finishing their studies. Combining Ozemba’s knowledge of interiors and Hung’s product design expertise, the duo designs lighting and other objects from their studio in Brooklyn.

In Quarters, their latest space, they seek to build upon the brand’s mission to cultivate creative connections. “Quarters is more than a retail concept,” Ozemba says. “It’s a platform for showcasing our unique view on domesticity and hospitality, and sharing our creative vision with a broader audience. It represents our imagination, values, and ambitions in a tangible form, and it’s an open invitation for others to find inspiration within our world.”

The store is styled as a residence, with a bedroom, kitchen, and dining room, so customers can experience the products in an immersive environment as if they are stepping into the pages of a beautifully curated catalogue. In each carefully adorned room, all the pieces were either designed and curated by Ozemba, Hung, or one of their peers, creating a layered harmony of artistic voices.

The bar, lounge, library, and great room were designed as creative gathering places, intended to host temporary installations, dinner parties, and other special events to foster artistic musings ahead. Throughout, the designers balance warmth and moodiness, with a rich jewel-tone palette and layers of texture from velvet to ceramic to wood, deriving inspiration from the neighbourhood’s artistic history and the ad hoc art spaces of the 1960s.

Restored vintage pieces are paired with decor items made in collaboration with Sophie Lou Jacobsen, Danny Kaplan, Shane Gabier, and Simone Bodmer-Turner. Around the burgundy bar swirls a romantic fresco in pinks and blues, painted by Claudio Bonuglia. Ceramic artist Shane Gabier’s work can be spotted throughout, from the burnt sienna and dark-green wall tiles, made in collaboration with a century-old tile factory, to the aqua seahorse sconces. Creativity and craftsmanship abound in each crack and corner. Quarters’ opening also marked the launch of a major new collection for the brand, featuring furniture, lighting, and decorative accessories that are on display in the store, including a series of slab-built ceramic pieces by Gabier.

The name In Common With takes inspiration from the studio’s design philosophy, which prioritizes building relationships and finding the things that bring people together. In their creation of Quarters, Hung and Ozemba again take cues from the spirit of partnership, basing their design on the act of collaborating itself.

Hung describes the creative potential of Quarters as “limitless,” noting that each creative who contributes to the dynamic showroom and visitor who engages with the items weaves a thread into the space’s story. “By welcoming others and fostering our artistic community, it will continue to evolve in new and exciting ways,” she says. “With each new perspective and collaboration, Quarters will transform again and again, pushing the boundaries of design, expression, and creative connection.”

Photography by William Jess Laird.

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